http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/17/business/cold-water-detergents-get-a-chilly-reception.html?pagewanted=1&ref=science
Tide, a company owned by Proctor and Gamble, has been working since 2003 to convert the world to a place where laundry loads are done with cold water. People have traditionally used hot water to clean their clothes, believing that the hot water gets rid of stains and dirt more efficiency. However, '"efficiently"should be the last word used to describe hot water loads. Proctor and Gamble conducted a study in 2003 where the realized that about three quarters of the energy use and green house-gas emissions used when doing a load of laundry, comes from the process of heating the water. Proctor and Gamble, after seeing these results, made a goal to convert 70 percent of laundry loads to cold water, versus hot water, by 2020. They estimated that this past year alone, 38 percent of loads were done with cold water. Dawn French, the companies director of North America laundry products research and formula design believes that cold water loads will continue to grow in popularity. Companies such as Whirlpool, have developed new washing machines that have a special cold water function that is designed to work efficiently with cold water detergents such as Tide's products.
This article makes us think of how many ways energy is used today, and how often times it is used inefficiently. For example, not many people think of washing machines as something that uses a lot of energy, but this article makes us realize that there are many things that we take for granted and use in our daily lives, that give off greenhouse-gasses and use a lot of energy. Before reading this article, I really had no idea of the cons of using hot water in laundry loads, and I did not even realize there were certain detergents for cold water loads. That may be because I've honestly never done laundry in my life, but this article definitely makes people view this topic in a different light.
I think that this article has a bias that supports virtually all of the actions that are put forth by Proctor and Gamble throughout this article. I am sure that there are many negative things that come from not washing your laundry with hot water, but this article barely scratches the surface on this topic. I research another article on this subject after reading this one, and it clearly had a different view on the concept of cold load washes. It stressed that in many case, people washed with cold water detergent because they thought it was more eco-friendly, however they realized after their laundry was done, that many stains were not taken out, they then found it necessary to do another load but had to use hot water. This ultimately leads to more energy use and more greenhouse-gas emissions by doing two loads, versus one hot water load. Tide responded to this saying that people should invest in washers that support cold water, and that they will continue to push their scientists to create a more efficient detergent. It was a little aggravating to me that I had to research another article to find counter-points to the article on the New York Times, I wish that the authors of the NYT article had provided us with more cons to using cold water loads as well.
AP Biology Amy Pepe
ReplyDeleteArticle Comments 9/19 9/18/11
I commented on the review of the article “Cold-Water Detergents Get a Cold Shoulder”, written by Nico Bardin. I thought that his review was very well written. First of all, he presented all the facts from the article clearly and concisely. Secondly, he gives good insight into how the actual article was written, and how it was biased in some ways to push the reader to support washing clothes in cold water. Lastly, this review uses a good vocabulary and is well organized, which made me want to keep reading it. It was able to catch my attention.
This review could be made a little better in two ways. The first is that he maybe could have used some quotes from the article to show who was saying all this information. Another way that this article could have been made a little better is that in the second paragraph, the language becomes kind of informal and when reviewing an article I feel that he might be better off to stick to formal language.
Something that impressed be about this article’s review is that I had no idea that Procter and Gamble was pushing so hard for people to switch to cold-water detergent, and to washing clothes in cold water. My family has always washed most of our clothes in warm water, and to be honest when I do my own laundry I don’t even know how to switch the settings to make the water cold. I think that it may be a struggle to get 70% of laundry loads to cold water by 2020 because it diverts so much from people’s normal routine.
Nicholas Bardin’s review of the article “Cold-Water Detergents Get a Cold Shoulder” was both informative and well presented. I especially enjoyed how he was able to connect the subject of the article to daily life, something that I felt allowed the reader to relate to the review more. Furthermore, I enjoyed Mr. Bardin’s consideration of the article’s perspective. He noted that the authors’ had left out certain critical details and had not fully explored the negative aspects of using cold water for washing. Finally, I appreciated the additional research that Mr. Bardin provided. This research highlighted the possible bias of the article and demonstrated the diligence of the reviewer.
ReplyDeleteOn the contrary, I felt that the review could still be enhanced by including additional information. Mr. Bardin repeatedly mentions that hot water works better for washing than cold water; however, he never expands upon this and describes why. Additionally, I would have preferred to hear more about the developments being worked on by Tide to make their detergents more efficient in cold water washers.
Nevertheless, I enjoyed Mr. Bardin’s review and was fascinated to learn about the environmental benefits of using cold water instead of hot water in washing machines. I previously had no idea that so much energy was used solely for the purpose of heating the water.